I got to Fort Lauderdale this past Saturday, 3 hours prior to my flight, and the baggage belt was down, so I had to take them back outside and give them to the guy out there. This was fine. However, when I got back to my gate it was announced that the flight was delayed, which would cause me to miss my connection from Charlotte to Columbus. I went up and talked to the lady at the counter and she said that she could get me on a Delta flight that was straight through and to go ahead over to ther terminal. So I left the US terminal, went outside in the rain to the Delta building and he said the woman had not booked anything for me. I had to walk back through the rain yet again to the US counter where I waited over an hour to get my ticket booked from the lady. I asked her to get my bags transfered to that flight and she told me she could not, just to travel without them and file a claim in Columbus. This would have been fine other than all my prescriptions were in my suitcase. After I refused to leave the counter she said they were extremely short staffed and that it was an invonvience, but called a man in baggage and he said he would look for them. I waited about a half an hour and the man came up and said that my bags were put on an earlier flight to Charlotte and then to Columbus, so they would be waiting for me.